WOMEN AS EMPLOYERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 4

WOMEN AS EMPLOYERS

TREATMENT OF STAFFS FEMININE INCONSISTENCY INTRUSION OF PERSONALITIES Do women make good employers is the natural corollary to do women make good employees? states an overseas writer. To consider tho question just offhand, one inclines to answer straight off —certainly they do, for they are by nature sympathetic, kindly and understanding. But to consider "the question ratliei; more carefully, although tho average woman is kindly, is she kindly to an employee? Candidly, one must admit that on tho whole she is not. The position of the domestic helper in the average household is proof of this. The mistress is invariably more irritable than the master, more inclined to nag and find fault. And this is not because she is longer in the house. Women often make this an excuse for ill-temper, but it really has nothing to do with it at all. Women are undeniably less scrupulous than men, and far more inclined to vent their spleen on the nearest unfortunate —which almost invariably happens to be an employee. Women Do Not Praise Also, one must own that women are not as good-mannorcd as men. They have far less control of their tongues and their temper, and do take things very much more for granted. A job well done, for instance, rarely calls forth praise—something neglected on the other hand, will provoke instant criticism. To get to the head of any business or profession means for a woman a stiff light as a rule. If in the process she becomes hard and domineering it is scarcely surprising. After all, memory, on the whole, is pretty shortlived, and having got beyond a certain stage it is difficult for ns to realise just exactly how we felt at that time. To look back down the rungs of the ladder, the climb may not appear so hard. Having won out, it is not easy to recall tho failures and tho trepidation that was felt during tho first stages of tho game. It is one of tho great compensations of life this — but, on the other hartd, also one of its dangers. Then Woman is so intensely personal —whatever it may be, just a purely official matter or household, she views it mainly from the personal angle. There are very few women who are completely or even partially dispassionate in their judgments. And, they cannot put themselves in the other person's place nearly as easily as can a man. This is not meant in any derogatory way, but is simply an inherent characteristic for which woman cannot be blamed.

It is the subjective point of view that makes her bring all her personal worries into her work. If she has a sick husband, or has suddenly lost her maid, if the laundry has not arrived, or the butcher brought the wrong meat-7-each one of these things is sufficient to upset her entire day. In all fairness, it must be granted that she does not let matters upset her without trying to put them out of her mind —but, somehow, women find it extremely hard to dissociate their personal affairs from their outside interests., ' " ■ / The Personal Element It is true, of course, that a man often comes into his office completely disgruntled because something _ has gone wrong at home, arid vents his illtemper on his unfortunate typist, but that is not very usual, and, anyway, he soon gets over it. Women worry so very much more, and find it so very much more difficult to ! throw their worries off. That is, no doubt, the chief reason why they bring their personal worries to their work. And, of course, that this should be so is scarcely surprising, for men have for years been supreme rulers of the business and professional worlds, and so, of course, have become used to the demands it entails. Women still have to make adjustments, and to adapt oneself to a completely different set of circumstances, naturally, takes time. Also, it must be owned that women arc not as consistent as men. We all, for example, know the mistress who makes a confidante of her maid one day treats her very cavalierly the next. This is characteristic, somehow, of practically all women, in whatever walk of life-their days seem to be set. The head of a department, for instance, will allow those under her all sorts' of liberties one moment, then suddenly change into the superior without any warning at all. The "all-working-together-for-one-coimnon-end" attitude is one we like to feel really prevails ; . . it does, in theory, on occasion, but in practice only rarely. The woman who glorias in the role of employer just for the sense of power it gives her is. of course, not very different from her male counterpart. The love of power is something as old as time itselr, and common to both men and women. The most tedious form in which it shows itself, however, is the mistress who glories in giving curt orders to her maid before other people, simply to impress. Danger of Favouritism

In the business and professional world a woman is often too apt to let her personal feelings intrude upon her business relations with her employees. For instance, if she has on her staff a very good friend, she will probably allow affection to interfere with good judgment and come to look upon that particular person as her star employee. All of which is likely to be very galling to others in the office who work very much harder and more conscientiously, and yet are regarded by their employer as mero cogs in tho wheel.

It is seldom that a man employer indulges in such flagrant favouritism as is to" be found in some woman-run concerns. And yet one cannot always blame a woman because her judgment is clouded and her sense of fair play takes a holiday. It is just the same thing over again—woman cannot bo impersonal, and regard matters in their true perspective when likes and dislikes are concerned And women take such sudden and violent fancies and antipathies. An unfortunate employee does something to annoy, and thereafter is regarded as a perennial pest. The fact that the same state of affairs prevails tho other way round has very little to do with it. An employee, has her living to earn and her job to hold on to —she has to keep her feelings well hidden.